Cross Country Base 1 Intermediate with Power Meter

This training program is the best way to start your training for the year.

This 6 week mountain bike training plan is for the intermediate level athlete that knows how to use power. It is the best plan to start the year off with. You will establish baseline measures with a Functional Threshold Test(FTP) at the beginning of the program.

The workouts are 5 days per week with Monday and Friday as your off days. One of the main goals of this plan is to build your foundation, so there will be a long ride every Sunday focusing on building your aerobic capacity. The rides during the week can be performed indoors or outdoors, your choice.

The rides in the training plan will build your aerobic capacity with long weekend rides, muscular endurance with tempo efforts and big gear efforts, and developing the means to push harder in your next training block.

You will end this plan with the ability to ride longer, harder, and most importantly the training plan setup to move forward with a higher intensity training plan after this.

This training plan will set you up to continue to build your fitness higher and higher following it.

Sample Day 2

1:30:00

6 x 90 second TT Prep Intervals

Ride easy for most of the time. Within the workout include 6 x 90 second Zone 4-5 intervals. Build into these slowly. Take 3 minutes recovery between each. These are Time Trial prep intervals: build up to expected pace for the TT's tomorrow. Practice you feel you can hold and maintain.Remainder of ride should be easy-moderate zones 1-2.

Sample Day 3

1:45:00

20 min. Power testing with FTP setup

Power Testing Day 1. Warm up well for 20-30 minutes with 3-4x60 second accelerations to the pace you plan to hold in the 20 minute TT. Take 2-3 minutes rest between the accelerations and 5 minutes rest before starting the Time Trial. Then do a 20 minute TT pacing yourself aiming to start at the same wattage as you end with. Download the info to Training Peaks and we will see how you did. Be sure to get 20 minutes of Zone 1-2 easy spinning in afterwards as a cool down.After your TT, you can update your Power Zones by doing the following:Multiply your 20 min TT average by .95 or 95%. That is your Threshold Power-Go into your settings in Training Peaks-Go to Zones-Scroll down to Power Zones-Put in your Threshold power-Choose type: Threshold-Choose Method: Click the down arrow and Select Andy Coggan (6)-Select Apply-Your zones are good to go!

Sample Day 4

1:20:00

Easy ride with 90% one legged drills

Ride Zones 1-2 only today. Within the ride include 20 minutes of one legged work, where one leg does 90% of the work while the other leg "loafs". While perfoming this drill, attempt to push your toes to the front of your shoe at the top of the pedal stroke, and scrape dirt off your shoes at the bottom of the pedal stroke. Attempt to eliminate all dead spots and become more efficient!

Sample Day 6

1:40:00

Force Short Hill Intervals

Ride mainly in Zones 1-2.

Within workout include 8-12 x 10-20 revolutions of the pedals at a very slow cadence of 50-60 rpm at 70-80% FTP.

Take 2-3 minutes rest between each effort.

Sample Day 7

2:30:00

Ride 50% Zone 2 Endurance Ride

Ride Zones 1-2 today. Get 50% or more of the time in Zone 2.

Sample Day 9

1:50:00

Big Gear Endurance Moderate Effort

Ride Zone 2-3 today. Use big gears only keeping your cadence between 70 and 80 for most of the ride. For any climbs you encounter, push even a bigger gear at 60-70 rpm.

Sample Day 10

1:40:00

Ride 50% Zone 2 Endurance Ride

Ride Zones 1-2 today. Get 50% or more of the time in Zone 2.

Drew Edsall

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Coachdrewedsall.com Llc / Mtbfitness.com

My name is Drew Edsall, I am a mountain bike coach and former professional mountain biker. I have had the pleasure of coaching many of the top riders in the World in all age categories including a Pan Am Games Gold Medal Champion in 2016, U23 Silver Medalist both in 2016 and 2017, and multiple National / State Champions / Collegiate Champions. My specialty is mountain bike coaching. You can find more information at either one of my websites: coachdrewedsall.com or mtbfitness.com